A Novel Method Based on Through-Fault Current for Detection of Fault Direction in Power Distribution Systems in Military Areas

By increasing the penetration of distributed generation in electrical distribution networks, especially in military areas, use of directional relay becomes a necessary device for protection of these networks. Due to the absence of potential transformers, the conventional directional relays cannot be applied in distribution networks for detection of fault direction. For this purpose, a new directional relay is presented that is able to detect the fault direction using only the through-fault current. The proposed approach is not affected by power flow direction and improves the performance of the previously introduced current based on directional relays employing pre-fault current. The present approach could eliminate the cost of the potential transformer in distribution systems. The extensive simulations, under different operation condition are carried out on two different distribution systems; including bidirectional 3 bus network and IEEE 14 bus test system. The obtained results approved the high efficiency of the proposed method.